Friday, May 28, 2010

This book took some perserverance. Batchelor calls his books collages, and this one did have a fragmented feel to it. I found my interest waxing and waning throughout as the subject matter flipped back and forth between the author's story, the Buddha's story, Buddhist politics and history. However, I have a very strong affinity with Stephen Batchelor, who, like me, is more interested in Siddhartha Gotama's Buddhism than the myriad sects of organized religious Buddhism available today. On page 229 he states that a Buddhist's practice "need not correspond to anyone else's idea of what 'buddhism' is or should be." I find this very validating. Batchelor likens the Dharma to pieces of a raft - the only useful bits are those which currently float. He points out that Gotama intended his followers to take refuge in the Dharma only after his death, to walk the path individually. This is how I've always practiced, and it is comforting to find validation in the words of this respected Buddhist author. So while this book was a bit scattered, it was well worth reading.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Dear JR Ward. Please stop using the phrase "what's doing". I don't know if that's common where you come from, but it just makes me cringe. I can deal with your other slang, but not that. Not that.

I missed the way Ward writes. I'm still awaiting Lover Mine from the library, so this was a nice distraction. If you can get past the whole - love-at-first-sight-makes-people-into-better-people thing (who wouldn't like to believe this?), her books are fun, and Covet is no exception.